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Using the Sketch Engine for second language learning: an experiment

Using the Sketch Engine for second language learning: an experiment. Simon Smith & Alice Chen ssmith@mcu.edu.tw | mralice@scu.edu.tw. Personnel. Designers of the Sketch Engine Adam Kilgarriff, Lexical Computing, Brighton David Tugwell, Tech University, Budapest

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Using the Sketch Engine for second language learning: an experiment

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  1. Using the SketchEngine for second language learning: an experiment Simon Smith & Alice Chen ssmith@mcu.edu.tw | mralice@scu.edu.tw

  2. Personnel • Designers of the Sketch Engine • Adam Kilgarriff, Lexical Computing, Brighton • David Tugwell, Tech University, Budapest • Pavel Rychly, Masaryk University, Brno • Chinese implementation • Huang Chu-ren, Simon Smith and colleagues at Academia Sinica • This work • with Alice Mei-rong Chen, and previously with Cecilia Li-zhen Lin • the generous support of the NSC (grant 95-2411-H-130-005-) is acknowledged

  3. Sketch Engine… • is at http://www.sketchengine.co.uk • is a software program which • analyses VERY large linguistic corpora • gives short summaries of word usage • has been used for dictionary production • has not yet been used extensively in language teaching and learning • is available for Chinese, English and others • gives a lot of information about context 語境 and collocation 詞語搭配 of words

  4. Word Sketch example

  5. Concordance example

  6. Synonyms in language learning • Language learners find it difficult to distinguish between (near) synonyms • strong  powerful, but • *powerful tea • *strong car (J R Firth, 1957) • can consult Sketch Differences

  7. Sketch differences example

  8. How can students use Sketch Engine? • Read, or do homework, as normal • Try to guess new words from context, as normal • Before using dictionary, go to Sketch Engine • get a word sketch (short summary) of the new word’s usage • explore the word’s usage further, by clicking on links in the word sketch • use Sketch Differences to compare similar words

  9. Experiment: How useful is the Sketch Engine for Chinese learning? • Select some intermediate foreign students of Chinese • Test their knowledge (pre-test) of collocations in Chinese • Ask them to use Sketch Engine regularly in their studies • After a period, test them again (post-test) • Evaluate their progress

  10. Background of participants Used 23 volunteers from two internet discussion boards Asked them to assess their own Chinese standard

  11. Sample pre-test questions (4 of 16) Collocation type questions (harder): • 李德朝侵入機場控制區並侵入飛機的行為造成了惡劣的___。 [結果|後果] • 這個小孩很聰明, 可是不太守_____的。 [規定|規矩] Broader context questions (easier): • 為什麼我問你的時候，你沒有____我這件事？ [告訴|告知] • 上課很認真，下了課也認真，可是她的___一直都不太好。 [結果|成績]

  12. Pre-test results

  13. Work outstanding • Distribute post-test and collect results • Determine improvement, if any, on • collocation questions • broader context questions • Get feedback on extended Sketch Engine use from participants • How can CSL/ESL teachers integrate SkE into their syllabi? • currently a hot issue in ELC at MCU

  14. Future project, next semester • Will teach two very similar English classes • PE7 in MCU’s ELC • One control group • Traditional vocab teaching • One Sketch Engine user class • Strong reliance on SkE • Teacher and students • In class, and for class prep • Compare grades on certain activities • Predict that SkE class will outperform control group through exposure to real, authentic language!

  15. http://www.sketchengine.co.ukssmith@mcu.edu.tw Please sign up for a free trial account MCU has an academic license: see me for login details! (mcu01)

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